Media: Evans loses to Ball in radio battle

Despite the non-stop hype machine that is Chris Evans, Radio 1's new breakfast duo Zoe Ball and Kevin Greening are attracting more new listeners than Virgin Radio's ginger-headed millionaire.

Radio 1's new breakfast line up, which started in Evans' old job on the same day as Evans started at Virgin, has attracted 750,000 new listeners, according to leaked monthly audience figures. By comparison Chris Evans' audience has increased by 470,000. But the October figures show that Evan's has a bigger percentage increase because of Virgin's low base and poor reception outside London. Virgin's breakfast show has increased by 26 per cent, and Radio 1 14 per cent. If Virgin can charge advertisers 26 per cent more in Evans' slot he will have more than covered his 10-week fee. Ball gets 5.76 million listeners in a week compared with Evans' 2.31 million.